Hottest rain on record? Rain falls at 115°F in Needles, California

A searing heat wave rare even for the Desert Southwest sent temperatures soaring to record levels on Monday, with Needles, California tying its record high for the date of 118°F (47.8°C). The temperature might have gone higher in Needles, but a thunderstorm rolled in at 3:20 pm, and by 3:56 pm PDT, rain began falling at a temperature of 115°F (46.1°C). Most of the rain evaporated, since the humidity was only 11%, and only a trace of precipitation was recorded in the rain gauge. Nevertheless, Monday's rain at 115° in Needles sets a new world record for the hottest rain in world history. I don't think many people were outside to experience to experience the feeling of rain falling at 115°, but if they were, it must have been an uncomfortable, sauna-like experience! Thanks go to Dr. Warren Blier of the NWS Monterey office for pointing out this remarkable event to me.

It is exceedingly rare to get rain when the temperature rises above 100°F, since those kind of temperatures usually require a high pressure system with sinking air that discourages rainfall. Monday's rain in Needles was due to a flow of moisture coming from the south caused by the Southwest U.S. monsoon, a seasonal influx of moisture caused by the difference in temperature between the hot desert and the cooler ocean areas surrounding Mexico to the south. According to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera, the previous record for hottest rain, which I blogged about in June, was a rain shower at 109°F (43°C) observed in Mecca, Saudi Arabia on June 5, 2012 and in Marrakech, Morocco on July 10, 2010. The 11% humidity that accompanied Monday's rain shower at 115° in Needles was the lowest humidity rain has ever occurred at anywhere on Earth in recorded history, according to Mr. Herrera.

Figure 1. True-color MODIS satellite image of California and Arizona taken at 1:25 pm PDT August 13, 2012. Developing thunderstorms surround Needles, CA, and the line of clouds to the southwest of the city would develop into a thunderstorm that brought rain to the city at 4 pm PDT, at a temperature of 115°F. Image credit: NASA.

A "very rare" heat wave for PhoenixThe heat wave that brought Needles' record hot rain has broken an exceptional number of heat records in Phoenix, Arizona the past two weeks. According to the Phoenix NWS office, the "almost unbearable heat" of the first two weeks of August is a "very rare" event, and August 1 - 14, 2012 was the warmest such 2-week period in city history. The average temperature on August 6 - 13 was 100°F or higher each of the eight days, tying the record for most consecutive days with an average temperature of 100°. The temperature peaked at 116° on August 8, just 6° below Phoenix's all-time record of 122° set on June 26, 1990. The forecast for Phoenix call for a bit of relief--highs are expected to be a relatively modest 105° today, and down near 100° by Friday.

Figure 2. Morning satellite image of 93L over the Central Atlantic.

93L close to tropical depression statusA large tropical wave (Invest 93L) is located in the Central Atlantic about 700 miles east of Bermuda. Satellite loops this morning show a surface circulation has formed, and heavy thunderstorm activity has increased to the point where 93L should be considered a tropical depression, if the heavy thunderstorms can persist through this afternoon. Wind shear is light, and ocean temperatures are warm, near 28°C. The latest Saharan Air Layer Analysis from the University of Wisconsin shows that 93L has moistened its environment considerably, and dry air should no longer be a significant impediment to development. The 8 am EDT run of the SHIPS model predicts that wind shear will remain in the low range through the weekend, and I expect this system will become Tropical Storm Gordon by Friday. The storm will not affect Bermuda, but residents of the Azores Islands should keep an eye on 93L, which could pass through the islands as early as Sunday night. In their 8 am Tropical Weather Outlook, NHC gave 93L an 80% chance of becoming a tropical depression by Friday morning.

Elsewhere in the tropicsIn the Gulf of Mexico, a fall-like cold front is expected to stall out early next week, and the GFS model is predicting something could start to spin up near the Texas/Mexico border on Monday. Wind shear is predicted to be low to moderate, and cold fronts stalled out over the Gulf of Mexico often serve as the seed for tropical storms.

Most of the models predict development of a new tropical wave off the coast of Africa 6 - 7 days from now.

Quoting bigwes6844:Poor Azores. Cat 1 when it hit in 06 and now it seems its gonna do the same thing this year. Now whats the odds of the same name storm happening to hit the same place six years later. one word WOW!20062012

Poor Azores. Cat 1 when it hit in 06 and now it seems its gonna do the same thing this year. Now whats the odds of the same name storm happening to hit the same place six years later. one word WOW! 20062012

WATCHES AND WARNINGS--------------------THERE ARE NO COASTAL WATCHES OR WARNINGS IN EFFECT.

INTERESTS IN THE AZORES SHOULD MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF GORDON.

DISCUSSION AND 48-HOUR OUTLOOK------------------------------AT 500 AM AST...0900 UTC...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM GORDON WASLOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 32.2 NORTH...LONGITUDE 54.8 WEST. GORDON ISMOVING TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHEAST NEAR 14 MPH...22 KM/H. A GRADUALTURN TOWARD THE NORTHEAST AND THEN EAST IS FORECAST. THIS TRACKWILL KEEP THE CYCLONE MOVING OVER THE OPEN WATERS OF THE NORTHATLANTIC FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS.

SATELLITE IMAGES SUGGEST THAT THE MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVEINCREASED TO NEAR 40 MPH...65 KM/H...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. SOMESTRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS...AND GORDONCOULD BECOME A HURRICANE OVER THE WEEKEND.

GORDON IS A SMALL CYCLONE. TROPICAL-STORM-FORCE WINDS EXTENDOUTWARD UP TO ONLY 25 MILES...35 KM...MAINLY TO THE EAST OF THECENTER.

Pretty quiet the last few days. Gordy going bye bye......Waiting for Helene and Issac to come off Africa..or perhaps some home grown trouble in the Gulf?? Seems to be the time for things to be picking up. MOJO Rising and the waves a bit south What will that portend?

(CNN) -- With New Delhi's iconic Red Fort as a backdrop, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced Wednesday his country has set its sights on the Red Planet.

In a Wednesday speech marking India's independence day, Singh said his government has approved plans to put an unmanned probe in orbit around Mars. The mission "will be a huge step for us in the area of science and technology," he said.It's an ambitious goal, with a planned launch in November 2013 for a 10-month flight, said Kiran Karnik, a former official with the Indian Space Research Organization.

"By the time the mission gets there, Mars will be comparatively the closest," Karnik told CNN's sister network CNN-IBN. "So there's a small window in which we need to make a launch and that's the reason the mission has to go up next year."NASA's Mars rover set for test drive

NASA's 'Mohawk Guy' celebrates Curiosity Mars rover searching for signs of lifeThe goal of the mission is to search for clues to the "geology, origin, evolution and sustainability of life" on Mars, according to an ISRO report published earlier this year.

India's space program launched its first Earth satellite in 1975 and put an unmanned probe into orbit around the moon in 2008. It plans to launch its first manned spaceflight in 2016, though an Indian cosmonaut, Rakesh Sharma, flew aboard a Soviet space mission in 1984.

Mars 'Mohawk Guy' inspires ObamaThe announcement comes as the U.S. space agency NASA is basking in the successful landing of its Curiosity rover August 6.

If the 2013 mission is successful, India would become the first Asian country to reach Mars: A 1998 attempt by Japan failed to insert itself into martian orbit, while a Chinese probe was lost along with the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission in January. But Karnik said India shouldn't be concerned with stunts.

"My only concern, if anything, is not the risk of failure," he said. "It's the risk that the program should not get diverted to these high-visibility, somewhat prestige-related events."

Y'all realize this sinkhole started on August 3rd, right? And that the sinkhole hasn't expanded since August 10th, right? Don't know why this story has suddenly become big news on WU.

They don't know what has caused the rupture. Maybe a drilling company, maybe a quake, maybe the salt dome was not strong enough. Rumbling was heard. article says: initially estimated the area was about 200 feet by 200 feet on private land near the Texas Brine Co. LLC facility. in speaking with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and the Governor's Office, there was a risk that the slurry area could grow to a size of about 2,000 feet across.

Quoting Tribucanes:Kids in Israel must feel like kids did during the 70's and 80's here in the states. As a young boy in the early 80's, I remember very acutely walking outside and wondering if the world was about to end. Action to be taken within 60 by Israel and most likely the West too, implications couldn't be higher.

Umm...huh? Louisiana has suddenly expanded to include to include 63% of the nation's hay acreage and 73% of the cattle acreage? Louisiana is 38th among the 50 states in hay production. That's 0.22% of the nation's hay production. Cattle acreage isn't even that high. This reporter learns to either do some fact checking or write more clearly.

this article says:The USDA reports 63 percent of the nations hay acreage and about 73 percent of cattle acreage are in areas experiencing drought. About 87 percent of the U.S. corn and 85 percent of the soybeans are included in the drought areas.

THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER IS ISSUING ADVISORIES ON TROPICALDEPRESSION EIGHT...LOCATED IN THE CENTRAL ATLANTIC ABOUT 550 MILESEAST OF BERMUDA.

A TROPICAL WAVE...THE REMNANTS OF TROPICAL DEPRESSION SEVEN...ISPRODUCING DISORGANIZED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE WESTERNCARIBBEAN SEA...THE YUCATAN PENINSULA...AND PORTIONS OF CENTRALAMERICA. ALTHOUGH THERE IS ONLY A SLIGHT CHANCE OF REGENERATION WHENTHE WAVE EMERGES OVER THE BAY OF CAMPECHE...LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN ISPOSSIBLE ACROSS PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA AND SOUTHERN MEXICOTHROUGH LATE TODAY. THIS SYSTEM HAS A LOW CHANCE...10 PERCENT...OFBECOMING A TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS AS IT MOVESWEST-NORTHWESTWARD AT 15 TO 20 MPH.

ELSEWHERE...TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THENEXT 48 HOURS.

Quoting Tribucanes:VAbeachhurricanes, we could private message with a few moves every day, that'd be fun. I'd have to pick up a board, haven't played in a decade. If your serious, maybe in a few days then. :)

Yeah, I got a board that sits on my table. Let me know if you wanna go a round :)

1034 Grothar: [inre SR-71 spy plane] I'd like to see you flying one of those things.

I've wanted to own one since monitoring a real test flight.The "world speed record" flight between (near)LosAngeles to (near)WashingtonDC was a milk run, probably made to "sow confusion amongst our enemies" inregard to its actual capabilities.

I miss playing that's for sure. My best friend Bernard, won nationals his junior and senior year in HS. 4.0 student in HS, never made a B. Was projected to excel at Purdue University or career in chess as a player/teacher. He dropped out of college and gave up chess and now works at Walmart. Great guy still, salt of the earth, just goes to show; you never know what life will bring.

Quoting Tribucanes:My best friend's father was a GrandMaster in chess with over a 2100 rating. While I played often here nationally, and did well, I never beat my best friend or his father in over 1000 games. So don't think I was bragging. :) My winning percentage is well over 90% though and I've beaten dozens with ratings over 1500 and a few masters. Being a Father and chess are all I've got to brag about, so do forgive. :)